Friday, January 12, 2018

A Few Shots of Cold Air and Snow Chances

These highs are much different than the 50° highs that we got to experience on Thursday, and unfortunately our temperatures are only going to get colder as we head into the overnight. We'll see wind chills get below zero pretty quickly this evening, with a few spots already seeing wind chills at zero. Temperatures will hit 3° overnight, with wind chills around -15°.

We got to experience quite the temperature fluctuation this week, starting at 38° and slowly warming up to 53° on Thursday. However, it is winter, so of course it didn't take long before those temperatures took a 30° drop. In fact, it took just hours for this to happen.

The reason this happened was because we had an occluding low to the north of us during the middle of the week, which means that the same pattern is occurring at all levels of the atmosphere. It was positioned in such a way that it allowed a 'wall' of warm air to move into our area, which pushed us into the 50's.

The only thing is that the low pressure system brought a strong cold front through our area Thursday afternoon. This, just like the warm air, brought a 'wall' of cold air into our area. This not only dropped our temperatures quickly, but also allowed our precipitation type to change rapidly. This is why we went from rain, to freezing rain, to sleet, and then snow all in the span of about 8 hours.

As we go through the weekend, this high pressure system will keep northerly winds pushing in and our skies clear, which means we'll get a cold overnight tonight and then again on Saturday night as well. However, once we get to Sunday our winds will start to shift, getting us away from those near-zero temperatures, at least until the work week.

A cold front will move through our area Sunday evening, which will bring us some snow showers. After the front moves out, a mid-level trough will allow for some lighter snow through Monday, with more cold air to move in afterwards. This will bring our overnights back into the single digits, and keep our highs in the teens for most of the work week.

However, by the time we reach Thursday a new pattern sets up that could allow for another warmup to take place! We have chances for sunshine and temperatures back in the upper 20's by Thursday, and then a possibility for the 30's again next Friday.